Why this word is great
KLOOF — [Noun] A deep, narrow ravine or gorge, especially in Southern Africa. Borrowed from Afrikaans and Dutch kloof ("cleft, gorge"), from Middle Dutch clōve ("cleft, fissure"), related to the verb cleave. Unlike a "canyon," which suggests a vast, arid, river-carved theatre of rock, or a "valley," which implies a broad and pastoral openness, a kloof is a tight, vertical confinement. It is the cool, damp cleft where the sun only reaches at noon, the dark seam in a mountain's flank choked with ancient yellowwood and fern, the echoing channel for a stream that sounds louder than its size. Here, the landscape is not displayed but withheld, a geography folded in upon itself for solitude.